You might think the phrase “CRM automation” is a bit redundant, but apparently it describes CRM systems that automate data entry and analysis. Introhive is one, and just raised a $100 million Series C, bringing total funding to $140 million. The company’s AI can map relationships among contacts at accounts, which coincidentally is a skill that (non-automated?) CRM Salesforce also recently added via Einstein. Can we call it a trend yet?
The founders of just-launched CDP Nessie are certainly on-trend: no-code, small business focus, Google Cloud Platform-based, and an integrated AI-based recommendation engine. Pricing starts around €400 ($480) per month. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason the Belgium-based company founders, who have no obvious connection with Scotland, chose to name their company after the mythical Loch Ness beast.
Location-based marketing is definitely a trend, although not a new one. Uberall, which helps multi-location retailers ensure they are found when people do a local search, just raised $115 million to continue growing. They also bought MomentFeed, which helps similar companies with local social media and customer sentiment analysis.
Automated marketing platform HCL Unica’s V12.1.10 release presents new AI features including AI-based predictive models. These will identify high-value prospects, products to recommend, next-best-channel for the recommendations and optimized send times. AI will also refine customer segmentation based on multiple data sources.